Goshinboku
by Inudaughter
Summary: Oneshot complete. The sacred tree speaks.


Title: Goshinbo

Goshinbo. The sacred tree. Over the ages how its leaves waved solemnly, steadfastly, radiating from it its sense of eternity. For it, there were no boundaries between now and the latter, the break called time did not exist. It was a being eternal.

Yet, it watched curiously over all the ages. In its minds eye, it felt all, saw all, the blurred motions of those who were bound to time, who could age and die. It could feel their happiness. It could feel their dreams. It could feel their sorrow.

Sorrow. The Goshinbo wailed its leaves, rustling them fiercely by some divine wind which passed over it. It knew sorrow. It had felt sorrow. It knew well the pain of someone whose blood had soaked into its own.

Inuyasha. The man of fates. He could feel around him a binding, a knot being created around him by the powers beyond eternity, beyond time. He was born to serve a purpose of the ever demanding fates. Born to alter, without knowing, the lives of men and demons, to shift the world to its other age. He was the grain of rice that swayed the balance.

Yet Goshinbo mourned for him. He knew everything. For so long, since that fateful day, that moment in time, he had suffered with him. An arrow, bitter, stinging, burning had lodged itself within him. But that was no comparison to what Goshinbo felt. The boy, with silver hair tumbling and red haori had bleed his heart out to Goshinbo, the magic arrow binding them, so that his hanyou blood seeped in and mixed with his juices, his own life blood. In a way, they were brothers.

For so long Goshinbo waited, waited for someone to rescue him. He gently curled enchanted vines to twine themselves around him protectively, supporting him, and providing an access to him he knew would someday be needed. Because he waited for her.

A woman also born to serve the purpose of the ever demanding fates. A woman born because Kikyo could not live. A woman born because she and the hanyou had upon them the inalterable bindings woven by fate. It was obvious to Goshinbo why.

"Me, a human?" the hanyou asked, somewhere long ago in the expanse of time, sitting on the bank as the wind blew harshly against him.

"Yes," said the woman, the winds of fate lashing at her in a misunderstood warning. "My duty is protect the jewel. Without it, I could lead the life of an ordinary woman." These words came from the woman's mouth. She did not understand what she was asking. Nor did she understand that the fates were cruel to lovers. So often they were cruel.

Become a human? No. Such a thing was never to be. It could not be. And someone else needed to come into existence. Someone else was fated by the harsh binders of threads that create reality. Someone was needed serve the purpose of the ever demanding fates. The fates smiled, knowing precisely how to shift this era, the era of demons to that of another. They needed to create Naraku. He, more than anyone, knew he was just a tool in the hands of fates. This he understood. He served his purpose well. He struck down the woman who had dared challenge the fates for the sake of love. They struck the woman who could only think of her own needs, her inward desires. They needed to create her anew.

But Goshinbo knew. He understood the pain and sorrow of Inuyasha. He knew the unbearable, sharp shooting pain of betrayal the hanyou felt. He knew his sorrow of living his life, of being him, of being alone. Inuyasha was mourning. Goshinbo, more than anyone could feel, could see every moment and thought of his life as he lay there pinned against him. His blood mixed within his, and truly, more than any one ever had been or would be, he was his brother.

Goshinbo remembered the first day he had seen the hanyou. He was expecting it. Since there was no boundary of time to Goshinbu, he had already experienced the pain that would become his. Goshinbo welcomed him with open arms, swaying his leaves gently. He coaxed the half demon to fall asleep on its bows. Goshinbo smiled.

Goshinbo watched. He watched as the hanyou fell in love. He mourned for his brother, knowing how it would end. Once more, for the first time, he felt the arrow that hit him, binding the demon in place. It seared, burning his bark away as the half demon reached out a hand and uttered his last words. "Kikyou, how could you… I thought that…" The hanyou's hand drooped and he fell into an enchanted sleep.

Yes, enchanted. Goshibu held him ageless as he was. He carefully wrapped his aura, his protection over the slumbering hanyou. He also smiled, knowing his release. He had already been there before. He had already walked the path and chosen the design. Now it was his turn to weave the threads of fate. Though he was only one voice, he was a fate himself.

Goshinbo knew what would become of this hanyou. He knew that it was not him that wove this alone. For all the times Inuyasha and Kagome had helped others increasing good karma, for all the heart-felt well wishes for them as a couple by their dearest friends, for all the love they had for one another, their love had to be created. So the threads of Inuyasha and Kagome, both servants of the ever demanding fates, were bound as one. The binding was not light either. It was woven eternal, so that from now on, throughout the reaches of time, their fate would be one.

Goshinbo smiled. He reached down within himself and thought of all he knew. He studied first a caring woman and the man she loved, sitting on a park bench beneath his branches. The woman was confused, upset, not knowing what to do. She had recently had an argument with the man and was surprised at his sudden pleading that he marry her.

Goshinbo closed his eyes and waved his leaves. Hush," spoke Goshinbo without any words. With his sacred aura, he pressed a warm bathe to her heart, asking her to be true to herself.

"True to herself." Those unspoken words had pressed themselves without knowing on the woman's heart and she accepted Mr. Higorashi's proposal. The young woman, with bouncing hair cut short smiled and stood up. She would tell those words to her own daughter one day. In the meantime, she only knew that here was a man she wanted to be with, and Goshinbo also desired this. At long last, this was the woman to bear Kagome and her sacred jewel.

Goshinbo waited as the fates created the life and person of Kagome. He waited patiently, time irrelevant anyway, until Kagome reached her fifteenth birthday. Then Goshinbo knew it was time.

The wood of the bone eater's well had come from a different tree of ages. Yet, the sacred power of the portal was his. He had woven it with his roots, knowing that the time would come when he would be needing it. Yes, he would be needing it to fulfill the desires of him and the other fates. Kagome Higarashi, the "just your average school girl" had to come. It was time.

So Goshinbo called the cat. He enticed Buyo with his mysterious voice to enter the well house, bringing Sota and Kagome in there. He knew the results. He cracked open his seal on time, reviving Mistress Centipede just enough so that she closed her hands on Kagome. Then both of them fell, pulled by Goshinbo through the never ending light that he lived in, pulling them through his heart through time and space. It was a portal meant for two, and two alone. Goshinbo knew the girl needed to come home some days, and this was his gift to her. She was his gift to Inuyasha.

So the two threads of fate were tied, wound by Goshinbo's hand. He wished sadly, that over time Kikyo would understand, and eventually she did. "Once the threads of fate are tangled, they can not be altered." At last she understood.

Goshinbo watched and saw, experienced everything of their lives together. Though unbound, Inuyasha's blood still pulsed within his own and he waited to see all that befell on his roots. He knew about their arguments. He saw their future. He saw them both in Kagome's time and that of the Senjkou Jidua, shifting all so that it matched seamlessly in his mind. What was the future could be the past for him. He saw their lives as no one else could.

Goshinbo helped them. Sometimes it was in simple ways, such as shading them like any tree on a hot summer's day, gently rustling. At one time he dropped petals gently on them, after Menomaru. He was quite pleased at that point, finally freed from the sting of Kikyo's arrow, pulsing with hatred. It was he who had showed it to her in the first places, moving aside his leaves so that's it glint caused her to become curious and discover it was there, for the time when she needed it.

At other times, Goshinbo's help was more noticeable. When Kikyo had thrown Kagome through the rampaging well in an effort to seal her off forever, Goshinbo had smiled at her futility. It was he who decided such things, not she. Though he felt no hate for Kikyo, she did not understand. With gentle hands he tore open a portal to where the two minds of Inuyasha and Kagome could meet, and served as a go between of their voices across time.

"Inuyasha," muttered Kagome stepping forward, snow seemingly drifting around her shoulders.

"Kagome?" asked an uncertain hanyou. "I'm kind of surprised you're not here." He opened his eyes to Goshinbo's vision. "Oh wait, you are here Kagome," he said.

Goshino waited, smiling, knowing the two needed this. He would give this to his brother, to them. It was also fated to be that they defeat Menomaru. Such a fate can not be altered.

"Will you stop going on like that," said an injured Inuyasha stumbling forward through space and time in a separate reality, a tangible one between two minds. The hanyou listened to her excuses and pulled her close, pressing her head against his shoulder. "I need you with me Kagome. Haven't you realized that?"

Goshinbo smiled as the girl cried into his shoulder. "Thank you, Inuyasha." Then Goshibo broke the vision. It was time for them to get on with destiny. He helped them accomplish this by echoing their voices to one another across time and space. Goshinbo was and is, the sacred tree.

But Goshinbo did more than this. He smiled, knowing from the start that one day he would feel the pitter patter of little feet across his roots in the forest floor. He knew that one day they would be together, Naraku defeated. He would see to that. So did they. With courage, they accomplished the task they had been sent to do. They traveled with others, destroying many demons in their travels. Between them and Naraku's absorption, nearly all demons who would raise a tooth to humans disappeared. This was their purpose, their reason for being. The fates had woven their binding around them in order to push that era of youkai into that of the era of man. Youkai still survived, but now they were ruled by taiyouki who guarded human and demon life both. Sesshomaru and Inuyasha became important rulers in the new era. For their father, life meant to fight. For them, life meant to live.

Goshinbo knew that in order to make all this happen, he had to bring Kagome here. He also knew, that in time she would have to make a choice. So he did one last thing for her. Goshinbo called out to the goddess known as the water god, whom had been rescued by Inuyasha and Kagome once before. He asked her a favor, and she gladly agreed.

Calling out without words, Goshinbo brought the hanyou and his beloved girl to his bows. He encompassed the well with a warm sort of glow and had the water god speak for him. The goddess had shaken out her long tresses and spoken to them.

'What will your choice be Kagome," she had finally ended after explanation. "Will you chose to stay here, or on the other side. Chose wisely because this portal will seal and it will never open again."

Tears coursed over the woman's face. So was no longer a mere girl. She was a mate, and though it greaved her at the thought of never seeing her family again, she knew the decision she had to make. She made it without any hesitation.

"I will stay here, with Inuyasha," she said as the portal sealed. She turned her head and buried herself in his arms.

Kikyo. It was strange that she thought of that at that moment. Kagome smiled and inwardly thanked her. It was Kikyo who got her revenge in the end. Kikyo who found peace. After they had defeated Naraku and pieced together the jewel, it was she who had destroyed it. She had used the sacred jewel to purify… herself. All her bitter hatred she let go, and she settled back into the grave, blowing as dust in the wind. But her now quiet spirit had settled itself back into Kagome. Back to where it belonged. But yet Kagome knew, without any doubt, that it was she whom Inuyasha loved most. He loved all of her, not just some fragment of her soul. Their hearts were now bound as one, and would be for centuries as they lived out the years his being a hanyou afforded them. She was very fortunate to be his wife.

Yes, they would have to say goodbye to many things, and people dear to them. But time is a river, Goshinbo knew. Together they rafted the hard times, the good times, the times of joy and laughter, the heartache. He knew that it was no perfect fairy tale. Nothing ever is. But the important thing was that they lived, and that they lived together. Their bonds, unbreakable now throughout eternity, wove themselves ever more tightly around each other. They were very blessed, and the fates had given them all this in a way of ameliorating the sorrows they had gone through to get there, and for Kikyo, who now rested as she should.

Kagome had stayed. Never more did she climb up through the well, a yellow backpack over her shoulder. Her family saw her for the last time, without ever really knowing why. Those answers would come to them through her own mouth, but it was from the mouth of a Kagome other than the one known to them. The young girl was gone. Instead, a woman for whom five hundred centuries of living had passed was the one who would tell them why they would never see the sixteen year old again.

Goshinbo smiled. Within the boundaries of Higorashi shrine, a couple approached him to sit on the park bench. Sota's flying soccor ball could be heard kicking against the shrine walls. The leaves of Goshinbo laughed. So here he was again, at last, his brother and his wife.

Both of them now had silver hair. Kagome leaned her head on Inuyasha's shoulder and sniffed in the scent of her long time husband. The hanyou, his silver ears twitching happily, took her hand and held it close to him. He still wore the robe of the firerat. She now wore a similar gown, made of rustling silver, a gift of her brother-in-law Sesshomaru. They looked well, the ruler and his wife.

The two stood up, Inuyasha and Kagome, clinging to one another. They looked up at the leaves of Goshinbo and felt its resonating warmth. Goshinbo's brother spoke, speaking the warmth that bled out of both he and Kagome's hearts.

"Thank you, Goshinbo," said Inuyasha. Goshinbo replied with a rattling of its leaves.


End file.
